All-Morning Energy Bars (Recipe #68)

        The best part about homemade food is that you get to decide what is put into the food and how much of each ingredient is used. I was excited to try this recipe because store bought granola bars are filled with lots of processed ingredients and high in sugar. These all-morning energy bars are filled with nuts and seeds. They are delicious and a great option for a quick or on the go breakfast. I decided to pair my energy bar with an apple that I cut into slices.

These all-morning energy bars are composed of a variety of nuts, seeds, dates, maple syrup, and orange zest. The recipe calls for raw nuts including raw almonds and cashews. It also calls for raw pepitas and sunflower seeds. I started by roasting the nuts and seeds in the oven. While that was in the oven, I gathered the rest of the ingredients. I processed a portion of the dates, water, maple syrup, orange zest, salt, and ground flax seeds. I put that into a bowl and stirred in the remainder of the chopped dates. Once the nuts came out of the oven, I let them cool and then I processed them until they were chopped. I mixed the nuts into the other mixture. I put the bars into a pan that was lined with foil and greased. I let them bake for about 20 minutes. They had to cool for about 15 minutes when they came out of the oven before I was able to cut them into 10 bars. I placed the 10 bars back onto a cookie sheet in the oven for about 15 minutes. The extra round of baking was to help crisp up all of the edges of the individual bars.

I was very satisfied with how these bars came out. I would love to make these again, but I would change the recipe slightly next time. I think it would be fun to try vegan chocolate chips or even dip half of the bar in chocolate. I would love to try a different combination of nuts--maybe all cashew, all almond, or use some pistachio. I love recipes that provide an outline for varieties of the same dish! This recipe was delicious as it was written, but I also think it would be a lot of fun to play around with what I choose to use next time!

Taste: 8/10

Level of difficulty: 1/5

Notes for next time: I would love to modify this recipe to include different nuts, vegan chocolate chips, or dried fruits.